Locomotive attachment



c. STERN ET AL LOCOMOTIVE ATTACHMENT Original Filed July 12, 192 5 5 t ..s 1

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- 1 BY ATTORNEY NOV 25 I I c. STERN ET AL LOCOMOTIVE ATTACHMENT Original Filed Ju ly 12, 1922 5 sheets-sheet z Ngv, Z5, r v

.C. STERN ET AL.

LOCOMOTIVE-ATTACHMENT Original Filed July 12 192? 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 NEW. 2mm.

C. STERN ET AL Ori inal Filed July 12,

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Patents Nov. 25, 1924.

CHARLES s'rnnnjor 'JnnsnY m New anasny, AND monster) w. Bearish, or new YORK, Y., ASSIGNORS ro B. a s. iitnnoreor'on msrnonuors CORPORATION, or JERSEY CITY, "NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION on NEW JERSEY.

LOCGMOTIVE Application filed July 12, 1922, Serial No. 574,499.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES STERN and RICHARD W. BRADEN, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, at Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, and borough of Manhattan, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Locomotive Attachments, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in attachments for locomotives and among its objects are to provide an improved device mounted in conjunction with the steam chest for automatically supplying steam to the steam chest from the boiler during drifting of the locomotive and to provide for the escape of steam from the chest upon stopping, while shutting off the escape of steam from the chest during normal running.

Another object of the invention resides in providing an improved locomotive attachment designed to fulfill these various func tions in a simple manner utilizing a compact structure easily accessible and consisting of few parts.

A further object of the invention lies in providing an improved locomotive attachment in which the operations and action of the device will be automatic and dependent upon the open or closed position of the throttle valve and upon the running or standing condition of the locomotive.

With the foregoing and other objects in view the invention will be more fully de scribed hereinafter and will be more par ticularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, wherein like parts are denoted by similar reference characters throughout the several views,

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a locomotive attachment embodying our invention;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary side view of a locomotive showing an attachment embodyingv our invention in place thereon;

Fig. a is a fragmentary front view of parts of the locomotive also showing an at tachment embodying our invention and its connections Figure 5 is a horizontal section taken cenrrrrecrrrannr.

Renewed May 9, 1924.

trally through the cylinders and the valve chest.

Figure 6 is a transverse sectional view through the slide valve and one of the cylinders showing the arrangement of passages.

Figure 7 is a fragmentary transverse section through the relief valve.

Figure 8 is a longitudinal section taken through the valve chest and one of the cylinders showing theparts in the left position. Figure 9 is a similar view with the parts in an intermediate position. a

Figure 10 is the same View with the parts shown. in the extreme right position.

Figure 11 is a vertical fragmentary section taken through one of the cylinders and showing the arrangement of the three passages, and 7 Figure 12 is a horizontal section taken on the line 12-l2 of Figure 11.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 1 designates a casing which houses substantially the entire attachment andas disclosed in Fig. 5 is formed with a pair of opposed cylinders 2 and 8 andwith a valve chest or compartment. & parallel with the cylinder 3. The cylinder 3 is shown as of slightly greater diameter than cylinder 2, and the piston 5 in the cylinder 3 is shown as correspondingly larger than the piston 6 which reciprocates in the companion cylinder 2, the pistons being shown as connected for simultaneous movement by a rod 7ex tending through suitable bearings provided in the heads of the various cylinders. A coiled spring 8 is shown as situated ina recess 9 in the cylinder head 8 and as abutting against an adjustable sleeve 10 having'external threads for receiving a lock nut 11 taking against part ofthe casing'or cylinder. The sleeve 10 may be turned in or out after the lock nut 11 has been backed off, and. the tension of the spring 8 maybe thereby regulated to an extremely fine degree. There is no packing about the rod 7 in the sleeve 10 and the atmosphere has free communication to the larger cylinder 3 at the right side thereof so as not to interfere with the movement of the piston. in practice the piston rod 7 is one-sixteenth of an inch smaller than the bore of the adjusting nut 10 but this small fractional clearance is not readily discernable to the eye, although it allows the free intake and exhaust of air to the side of the piston 5 adjacent the spring 8.

In the valve chest or chamber 4 is shown a slide valve 12 having upstanding perforated lugs 13 spaced apart and adapted to receive therebetween the valve stem 14. Heads 15 of suitable diameter are made with, or secured to the valve stem and abut against the outside faces of the slotted lugs 13 in order to cause a reciprocating movement of the valve 12 in response to like movement of the stem 14. This stem 14 is shown as project ing slidingly through a stufiing box 16 in the head of the valve chamber and as receiving at its outer end a bent arm 17 shown as connecting the stem with the piston rod '7 at an intermediate point between the cylinders 2 and 3. The bent arm 17 is made fast both to the valve stem and the piston rod whereby, upon movement of the pistons in either direction, a similar movement will be imparted to the slide valve 12. w

This slide valve 12 is shown as formed with an opening 18 in its lower face adapted to communicate either simultaneously or individually with the steam passage 19 and the escape port 20., both of which are shown as entering through the base of the valve chamber sufficiently adjacent to one another to be bridged by the opening 18.

The steam passage 19 communicates with a central neck 21 having internal screw threads as shown in Fig. 2 for attachment to a pipe 22 leading to the locomotive steam chest 23 as shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

The valve chamber 4 is shown as provided in its top portion with an opening 24 adapted to receive a pipe 25 which conveys steam to the valve chamber 4. In Fig. 3 a suitable valve 26 is shown as supplied to regulate the passage of steam to the pipe 25. The steam from the throttle valve passes to the steam chest 23 and to the locomotive cylinder 27 through the steam pipe28.

The neck 21 is shown as also communicating by means of passages 29 and 30 with opposite ends of the cylinders 3 and 2 respectively, the passage 30, as shown in Figs. 2 and 8 to 10 inclusive, having a seat at its outer end for a check valve 31 suitably guided in the passage 30 and provided with an elongated stem 82, the outer end of which takes slidably into a socket 33 upon the head 3:34 of the steam chamber 35 which communicates with the outer end of the cylinder 2. in Figure 2 the valve 31 is shown open to admit steam but the steam is initially entering and has not accumulated in sul'iicient quantity to move the piston 6 to the left. Moreover the steam against the larger piston is still active and prevents the movement of the pistons to the left. T his head 34 may be made removable and secured as by bolts 36 to permit access to the interior parts. A coil spring 37 surrounds the stem 32 for 21.

distance and is shown as positioned to be encountered by a bent arm 38 carried upon the valve stem 7 or the piston 6. The valve stem 7 or piston 6 also carries a latch head 39 shown as h ving an abrupt inner wall and an inclined or conical outer wall, and the head is shown as cooperating with a depending tooth 40 upon a latch lever 41 fulcrumed at 42 in a bracket 43 secured in the top of the chamber 35. A coil spring 44 seated in a socket in the top of the chamber 35 and engaging with an intermediate part of the latch lever 41 may be employed to normally urge the latch lever 41 downward. The latch lever is shown as also provided with a valve 45 pivoted thereon as indicated at 46 to enable the valve to accommodate itself to the seat 4? in the upper part of the chamber. The exhaust port 48 through the upper part of said chamber may be controlled by the valve 45. As shown in Fig. 5 the cylinder 2 is provided with a vent 49 adapted to be put in conmninication with the chamber upon movement of the piston 6' to the left. The vent 49 is also shown in Fig. 6.

in operation, steam is allowed constant access through the pipe 25 to the slide valve chamber 4 and the neck 21 at the base of the casing is at all times in communication with the locomotive steam chest 23 through the pipe 22. Assume that the locomotive standing, then, the throttle being closed, there will be no pressure, other than leakage, in the steam chest 28 and leakage from the steam chest will pass into the pipe 22 and enter the neck 21. From the neck 21 the leakage may pass through the channel 19 to the opening 18 and from the opening 18 through the exhaust port 20 out to the atmosphere. if the leakage should be so great that it will not readily evacuate in this way the pressure of the leakage will open the check valve 31 thereby permitting the leaking steam to enter the chamber 35 and pass by the open valve 45 to the exhaust port 48 and thence out to the atmosphere.

V. hen the throttle is opened steam entering the steam chest of the locomotive will pass through the neck 21 to the passages 29 and 30. From the passage 29 steam will enter the cylinder 3 and from the passage 30 steam will enter the chamber 35. The pressure of steam in the cylinder 3 behind the piston 5 will cause the piston 5 to move forward or to right and in its forward movement the piston 5 will carry the rod 7 and with it the arm 1? forward. lVhen a sufiicient amount of steam has accumulated in the chamber 85 the pressure of steam in the chamber against the area of the check valve 31 will close the check valve 31 and the further entrance of steam from the passage 30 to the chamber will be prevented.

i he steam pressure in passage 30 is greater than the tension of the spring 37 and consequently the valve 31 will open auto matically to admit the steam to the chamber 35 until a condition of balance substantially exists between the pressure in passage 30 and in chamber 35, whereupon the valve 31 will close. The closing of the valve 31 will be effected by the spring pressure aided by the steam pressure inthe chamber 35 acting on the larger area of the valve 31. The pressure of steam in the chamber 35 against the valve 45 will close the 'port 48. At this time the slide valve 12 will be in the position shown in Fig. 10 in which position no steam can pass out through the exhaust port to the atmosphere.

If it be desired to permit the locomotive to drift the throttle will be shut off thereby discontinuing the supply of steam to the chamber 3. The pressure of steam in the chamber 35 against the piston 6, aided by the pressure of the spring 8 upon the piston 5, will force the piston 6 and with it the rod 7 and the piston 5 to the left. VJhen the piston 6 moves past the exhaust port 49 steam from the chamber 35 will exhaust to the atmosphere. The reduction of pressure in the chamber 35 will permit the latch lever 41 to descend thereby opening the valve 45 and permitting steam to pass through the exhaust port 48 to the atmosphere. In the movement of the rod 7 to the left the arm 1? and with it the valve stem 14 will be carried to the left. This movement of the valve stem 14 so moves the slide valve 12 that the passage 19 is opened, as shown in Fig. 8, thereby allowing steam unobstructed passage from conduit to the steam chest. It will be readily understood that when the slide valve 12 is in the position shownin Fig. 8 no steam will pass out through the port 20,

The valve 12 and the pistons will beheld in this left position by the pressure of the steam upon the slide valve 12 forcing the slide valve against the bottom of the valve compartment and developing frictional contact.

If the engineer applies his brakes after the device has been drifting for a time with the parts in the position as shown in Figure 3, then the steam which is being fed to the locomotive cylinders immediately backs up due to the braking, and is forced into passage 29 and cylinder 3 under pressure. The steam in cylinder 3 will shift the pistons 5 and 6 to the right and bring about the condition of the parts shown in Figure 10. On complete stoppage the spring 8 moves the parts to the position shown in Figure 9.

In approaching a destination the locomo- 'tive will slow down and the steam in the cylinders which cannot exhaust rapidly, due to the slower movement of the locomotive pistons and piston valves will back up and create a back pressure. This back pressure will extend to the passage 29 and cylinder-'3 and will act to move the piston 5 to the right. Inasmuch as there is nopressure in chamber 35, this having previously escaped through the port 49, the movement to the right in response to the back pressure will be readily accomplished. The back pressure steam will be prevented from entering the chamber as the valve spring 37 is held compressed by the arm 38 and consequently there will be no back pressure in the chamber 35 to oppose the movement of the piston 6 to the right. In moving to the right by the back pressure the piston 5 will be obliged to compress the spring 8 and this spring'may'beadjusted as to tension by the hollow adjusting screw 10. The spring may be set for instance to allow movement of the pistons at a speed of three miles an hour which will be the speed ofthe locomotive at which the drifting valve will shut off the supply of steam to the locomotive cylinders. As soon asthe piston 5 moves to the right theslide valve 12 cuts off further steam from the pipe 25 to the locomotive steam chests andioco'mauve cylinders. The final stroke of the locomotive pistons instantly uses all steam in the cylinder 3. Therefore there will be no b pressure against piston 5 when the locomotive stops. The-reupon the spring 38 will push the piston 5 to the left carrying with it the rod 7, piston 6, slide valve 12, and latch head 39. The latch head 39 will engage the tooth 40 of the latch lever 41 and the lever 41 will be thereby so looked that the valve 45 will be held open. At the same time the slide valve 12 will have assumed the position shown in Fig. 9 and any leakage of steam from the steam chest will pass through the opening 18 to the exhaust port 20 and out to the atmosphere. I

It will be seen that we have providedan extremely compact device for carrying out the numerous functions referred to in which all of the parts are simple and automatic in operation, being entirely dependent upon the running conditions of the locomotive or the closed or open positions of the throttle.

While we have illustrated and described a preferred and satisfactory embodiment of our invention we desire understood that various changes and modifications may be resorted to provided the same are within thescope of the following claims.

What we claim as our invention is:-

1. In combination with a locomotive having a steam chest and a source of steam. an attachment comprising a chamber in comnrunication with the atmosphere, source of steam and steam chest, a valve in said chamber movable to three separate positions. means for moving said valve normally to a position "where it will vent the steam chest to the atmosphere, and means acted upon by the presence of pressure in the steam chest for moving said valve to a second position where it will cut ofl the steam chest both from the atmosphere and from said source of steam, said attachment having an enclosed space for accumulating a supply of steam pressure from the steam chest during the normal running of the locomotive for acting on said last named means when the steam chest pressure falls whereby to move the valve to a third position in which the steam chest will be cut off from the atmosphere but put in communication with the source of steam.

2. In combination with a locomotive having a steam chest and a source of steam, an attachment carried by the locomotive and comprising a chamber in communication with the source of steam and with the steam chest, a valve in the chamber for opening and closing this communication and also for placing the steam chest in communication with the atmosphere while cutting oil the communication between the steamichest and source of steam, and actuating means for the valve adapted to normally move such valve to the position where it will vent the steam chest to the atmosphere and cut off the communication with the source of steam, said valve actuating means having opposed faces of differential area adapted to simultaneously receive steam pressure from the steam chest whereby the steam pressure acting on the larger area will move the actuating means whereby to shift the valve to a position where the steam chest will be cut off both 't'rom the atmosphere and from the source oi steam, said attachment having an enclosed space about the face of the valve actuating device of the smaller area whereby pressure may accumulate and become operative when the steam chest pressure falls at the larger area and whereby the valve actuating means may be shifted in an opposite direction to cause the valve to assume a position in which the steam chest will be cut off from the atmosphere but will be placed in communication with the source of steam.

3. In combination with a locomotive having a source of steam and a steam chest, an attachment for the locomotive comprising a casing having a pair of opposed cylinders of unequal diameters and a valve chamber, pistons in the cylinders, a valve in said chamber, means connecting the pistons and the valve for movement together, a source of steam, said casing having passages from said steam chest leading to the outer ends of the cylinders and from said sou Tce to the chamber, a connection from said chamber to said locomotive steam chest, a port to the atmosphere .in said chamber adapted to be put into communication with the steam chest by said valve escape ports in one cylinder, one of the ports being normally shut off by the piston, a valve to control the other port, a latch for the piston associated with said last named valve, a check valve to avoid the escape of steam, and resilient means tending to move the pistons in one direction until restrained by said latch for permitting exhaust of the locomotive steam chest.

4. F or locomotives having a source of steam and a steam chest an attachment comprising a chamber in communication with said source of steam and also with the steam chest, said chamber also being vented to the atmosphere, a valve movably mounted in said chamber, means for moving said valve, said means being in communication with the steam from the locomotive steam chest whereby the steam will act to move the means and the valve to a position where the communication between the source of steam and valve chestwill be cut off and likewise where the vent to the atmosphere will he closed, an enclosed space for holding accumulated steam from the steam chest in potential condition with respect to said means whereby when the pressure in the steam chest falls, such accumulated pressure will act to move the means and said valve to a second position whereby to open the communication between the source of steam and the steam chest and to close the vent to the atmosphere, and yieldable means acting to shift the first named means and valve when free of the steam chest pressure and the accumulated pressure to a position where the valve will place the steam chest in connection with the rent to the atmosphere but will close the vent and the steam chest from the source of steam.

5. In combination With a locomotive having a steam chest and a source of steam, an attachment mounted on the locomotive and comprising a casing having a chamber in communication with the source of steam and with the steam chest, said chamber also having a vent to the atmosphere adjacent the point of connection to the steam chest, a slide valve in said casing for opening and closing the communication between saidsource of steam and steam chest and having a cutout portion adapted in one position to establish communication between the steam chest and the vent, cylinders of unequal diameters in said casing comiected for simultaneous movement and coupled to move said valve, said casing having a passage in communication with the steam chest and wit-h the outer end of the larger cylinder to cause movement of the valve to cut oil said source of steam from said steam chest and also having a further passage in communication with the outer end of the smaller cylinder, a yieldably closed valve for admitting steam from the steam chest to the smaller cylinder but preventing return flow thereof whereby to build up a pressure in the smaller cylinder adapted to shift the piston therein inwardly when the steam chest pressure on the larger piston falls and move the Valve to connect the source of steam and steam chest means whereby the accumulated pressure in the smaller cylinder may be evacuated, and yieldable means acting to move said pistons normally and in the absence of steam pressure on either piston to a position where the valve vents the steam chest to the atmosphere.

(5. An attachment for locomotives having a source of steam and a steam chest comprising a casing mounted on the locomotive, a chamber therein communicating separately with the source of steam and with the steam chest, said chamber being also vented to the atmosphere, a valve in the chamber for opening and closing the communication between the source of steam and the steam chest and for opening and closing the vent to the steam chest, cylinders of unequal diameters in the casing, connected pistons in said cylinders, means connecting said valve for movement with the pistons, spring means for moving said pistons and valve to a position for venting the steam chests to the atmosphere, said casing having a passage placing the steam chest in communication with the outer end of the cylinder of larger diameter whereby ing to admit flow from the steam chest into the last mentioned cylinder but acting to automatically close to prevent back flow, whereby to build up an accumulated pressure which will act when the steam chest pressure falls to open the valve whereby to allow steam from said source to flow into said stem chest, spring means for automatically closing said valve, an arm mov able with the pistons for compressing said spring to hold the valve against movement when the smaller piston is in the inner position, latch means for limiting the movement of the pistons in one direction and a valve coupled with said latch means for controlling the escape of the steam from the smaller cylinder.

7. In combination with a locomotive having a steam chest and a source of steam, an attachment comprising a chamber in communication with the source of steam and with the steam chest, a valve in the chamber for opening and closing this communication, and a valve actuating device having opposite outer faces of differential diameter both said faces being simultaneously in open and free communication with the steam chest so long as pressure exists therein whereby the pressure acting 011 the larger diameter will shift the valve to cut off the steam chest from the source of steam, means whereby the steam pressure at the side of smaller diameter may be prevented from escape when the steam chest pressure falls whereby to shift the valve actuating device and valve to a second position where the steam chest will be placed in open communication with the source of steam.

CHARLES STERN. RICHARD W. BRADEN. 

